Whups, I NaNo’d Again
November hosts an evil little competition known as NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month. The goal is to write a novel of 50,000 words or more from scratch over the course of the month. I did it and won in 2012, but it ended up with me having a bad depressive spell in the following December. Tres weird for me, I tend to be happiest in the cold months!
As I had managed to do it and win it once, I decided I never need do it again. So apparently, I’m doing it again this year. Whups? A bit. I’m keeping pace nicely and am just shy of 9,000 words here on day five. I’m managing it pretty nicely without being a raging pain in the ass like I was last time. I think that I’ve continued to stretch a lot as a writer since that experience, so it’s an as imposing or stressful a thing to do (even doing it atop the 7,000-10,000 words a week I write normally).
I still have to be mindful though — what if this is hypomania again? I’ve already established that I’m not completely sure where I am on the spectrum, and I am seriously thinking of asking my psychiatrist to up my doses. I can’t even give a tangible reason why I want to ask her, just that i think it might be a good idea. We’re supposed to trust our instincts on this sort of stuff, right? My last psych was amenable to such last time I asked, so we’ll see. I’m not adverse to lowering it back down later if we see fit, but as I keep navigating through this postpartum thing… well.
One thing I have noticed though is I am absolutely terrible about making the blog rounds. Like, I have all these words and I am putting them out, and then I don’t have any energy to see what other people are up to properly. I can’t blame NaNo for that though; it’s been the case for a bit now. So if I’ve not popped in and said howdy, my apologies. Sometimes I’m reading things properly, sometimes I’m not. Not that I think any one here would hold that against me — we all have ups and downs, and even the good doesn’t come with a lot of spoons. And I do still clock things as good!
<3
Hey, congrats on your NaNo’ing! I did it three years in a row and was planning to do it this year but then my dad went and died on me and I just lost my motivation. Maybe next year…good luck to you, I’m sure you’ll finish, and maybe you can give us all a link, like on Google docs or something!
I’ll probably have my husband convert it to a pdf like we did in 2012:
http://www.digitalglitch.org/misc/An%20End%20to%20All%20Things.pdf
Since that’s easy enough to use on readers or computers. And my thoughts are with you right now. *hugs*
re: (even doing it atop the 7,000-10,000 words a week I write normally).
do you mean via blog, or are you writing other stuff too? that’s a lot o words!
I’m doing Nano also. It’s horribly bad writing (today anyway) but I have turned out a couple good novels that way. Edited? not yet lol
I do a Livejournal entry, and a 750words.com entry every day. That’s about 1,000 words there. Then you add on this blog, The Scarlet B, occasional tumblr rambles, and my hidden blog, and it all adds up!
Having said that, I consider blog writing versus creative writing completely different beasts. Creative writing is a lot harder for me, but I’m glad that I’m stretching my chops in both regards. And there’s a blog post out today over on Digitalglitch on the subject of writing, hee hee.
My goodness you are prolific! But I have found that any writing greases the wheels (so I count this reply, haha!) I am 2800 behind on my nano but I did 1300 this am when someone challenged me to a 1 hour sprint – I literally had just gotten out of bed – no coffee, no nothing!
Eeep, caffeine is mandatory. And I tend to do mine in little bursts of 50-100 words across the day. It also helps me keep pacing more reasonable, since having to fill a glut makes me panic and skip way ahead.
I am utterly amazed by both of you! And Raeyn, a belated congratulations on your win!!!! That’s a fantastic honor and achievement! 🙂
Aw, thanks! 🙂
Once again I used my bloody Kindle last night writing the last comment – I just don’t have the patience to write much on the contraption. (That’s probably a good thing!)
What I meant to add, Raeyn, is that you are incredibly humble. Writing the book, let alone WINNING the 2012 competition is astounding. I am so, so impressed! Again, congrats, my dear!
Have a great Sunday!
Dyane 🙂